These people shaped our world through their actions. They dedicated their lives to hard work in order to accomplish their goal.

What the media tells us

You can’t find a movie or mini-series that doesn’t have an “if you believe, you will achieve” theme in it.

From How I Met Your Mother to The Edge of Tomorrow, all the main characters have to do is focus intently or let go of their minds and their bodies will follow. That’s even a quote from one of my favorite movies, L.A. Story, starring Steve Martin. “Let your mind go and your body will follow,” asserted the talking freeway billboard (who later demanded a hug and made bagpipe noises).

In the movies, it is very simple. Just close your eyes tight enough and *poof* out pops your dreams, right there in front of you, ready for you to live them. Kind of like when Mary Poppins and Bert jumped into the sidewalk chalk drawings in London.

Of course movies are fiction; but when we watch enough fiction, our brains tend to adapt to fictitious ways of thinking.

We can think anything we want, but nothing will happen until we act. Thus, we need to practice our actions in order to align our actions with our thoughts; and in order to perform the right actions, we need to have the right thoughts.

It begins with thoughts

The Dali Lama said, “In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.”

We must have a positive mindset if we are to have positive actions. It all starts in our heads.

The only thing in this world the we have any sort of control over is our thinking.

If we want our lives to be better, our bodies to be fitter, our careers to be more meaningful, and our relationships to be more loving, we must first think about these things and use our thinking to develop understanding.

Through understanding we can develop compassion for others and ourselves. We can develop strategies and plans that can be put into action in order to create the life of our dreams.

Then, we apply our thoughts

We likely will do and say what we think about all day long.

If we think about how angry we are, we will likely act like a grump. If we think about how excited we are, we will likely act happy and energetic. If we think about how daunting work is and how everything is going wrong, we will likely act sluggish and defeated.

So, if we want our lives to grow in a particular direction, we must orient our thoughts in that particular direction.

Then, we must act.

We cannot wait for life to go *poof* and suddenly have everything we’ve ever wanted displayed in front of us.

Thinking isn’t enough. It is never enough.

In order for our lives to be the way we want, we must put our thoughts into action. Get our minds right, then go.

Aristotle said it best: “We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.”

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Meet Rachael

Hi there, I'm Rachael. I created this website to share what I learn about life and love so that you might benefit. Feel free to visit anytime you're feeling down or confused. I don't have all the answers, but I'll certainly help you find some peace of mind and remind you that you already have everything you need to be happy. Please email me if you have specific concerns or are interested in contributing. Be well!